The Death and Life of Bobby Z

A Novel

When Tim Kearney draws a license plate across the throat of a Hell's Angel, he's pretty much a dead man. It's his third crime and, according to California law, that gives him "life without the possibility of parole." Killing a Hell's Angel also makes him a dead man on any prison yard in California. That's when the DEA makes Kearney an offer: impersonate the late, legendary dope smuggler Bobby Z so that the agency can trade him to Don Huertero -- northern Mexico's drug kingpin -- for a captured DEA agent. Tim Kearney bears an uncanny resemblance to Bobby Z, and, with some training, he might be able to pass. Or not. But, really, what choice does he have? So, he's off to a compound in the middle of a desert that's been designed by Huertero's number-two man to look like the Arab fort in his favorite movie, Beau Jeste ("The Santa Fe thing had been done to death.") Kearney's surprised when he meets Bobby Z's old flame, Elizabeth, who was never mentioned in his training, and her son, who she claims belongs to him. It's a short vacation by the pool before Kearney's on the run from drug lords, bikers, Indians, and cops ... and the kid's along for the ride. Some of the pursuers want Bobby Z, and some want the considerably less legendary Tim K. Whether he pulls it off, whether he can keep the kid and the girl and his life, makes for a hilarious, fast-paced, and truly touching novel.

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A quick read partly because it is impossible to put down! The main characters, a convict with low self esteem, and an orphaned six year old boy are great together. The plot is fabulously convoluted. There is violence and sex but not more or more graphic than what we have become used to.

I have not watched TV in 9 years and find it near unbearable to watch most media. When I try I always think to myself how much I'd rather be reading. I can say I am glad I did not start with this one but it's kind of cool to see the evolution of his writing. Besides, it's like when Donald J's son, Beavis lied about meeting with a Kremlin attorney during the election and they spun it by calling it a "nothing-burger". Thankfully Winslow, like Irvine Welsh, Jacqueline Woodson, Jon Ronson, Margaret Atwood and so many others can even make a nothing-burger read like a Triple Triple Animal Style.

Wasn't sure if I was going to like it after the first couple of chapters. The author writes the way teenagers on the beach talk, with lots of "like"s. Kind of annoying at first but once I got over it I could not put this book down. A great, fast-paced, page turner about a guy who takes on the identity of a legendary drug lord, who has many enemies, in an attempt to save himself from his own crappy existence. Now I want to read more from Don Winslow!